Bush signs energy law

Requires more ethanol, better auto fuel economy

The Associated Press

Published Thursday, December 20, 2007

WASHINGTON -- Gas guzzlers could become relics of the past and farmers may rival oil companies in producing motor fuels under a new energy law. Consumers also will save electricity and money from more efficient refrigerators, furnaces and dishwashers.

There will be improved efficiency labeling on TVs and computers. And the office building of the future may need less energy and rely more on wind, solar or biomass, becoming zero emitters of greenhouse gases.

That's the future outlined by some energy experts as a result of new legislation President Bush signed on Wednesday.

Automakers now will be required to achieve an industrywide average fuel efficiency for cars, SUVs and small trucks of 35 miles per gallon by 2020, a 40 percent jump and the first increase in the federal requirement in 32 years.

The bill also stands to change the fuel motorists will use to power those cars, requiring a sixfold increase in the use of ethanol instead of gasoline. And it revs up the push for efficiency on everything from light bulbs and home furnaces to new commercial buildings.

Bush said these measures are "a major step toward reducing our dependence on oil" and addressing global warming.

"Taken together, all these measures will help us improve our environment," Bush said at an Energy Department signing ceremony, adding that they "could reduce projected carbon dioxide emissions by billions of metric tons." Carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels is the leading greenhouse gas, trapping the sun's heat in the atmosphere.

"We think it's the most significant energy saving law ever," said Lowell Ungar, policy director at the Alliance to Save Energy, a private advocacy group.

The availability of more fuel-efficient vehicles is expected to save 1.1 million barrels of oil a day and save consumers $700 to $1,000 a year in fuel costs, according to an analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists, an advocacy group, that was widely cited during congressional debate on the bill.

But second to that, the simple light bulb will likely bring the biggest energy saving to consumers.

The law calls for the phaseout, beginning in 2012, of the inefficient incandescent bulb that has been in use since the days of Thomas Edison. By 2014 these bulbs "will be virtually obsolete," says Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., who authored the lighting provision in the bill.

While the law will not dictate specific technology, the 100-watt bulb will have to be replaced, for example, by one that provides the same amount of light for 72 watts, with additional improvements required by 2020.

The law also requires new energy efficiency standards for refrigerators, freezers, dishwashers and clothes washers, and requires improved energy-use labeling on light bulbs, televisions, computer monitors and other electronic products.